Alaska man gets 4 life terms in Coast Guard deaths

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Military police guard the scene where two Coast Guard members were fatally shot at a communications station on an island off Alaska, Thursday, April 12, 2012 in Kodiak, Alaska.(AP Photo/Kodiak Daily Mirror, Nicole Klauss)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A 63-year-old Alaska man has been sentenced to four consecutive life terms after being convicted in the shooting deaths of two co-workers at a Coast Guard communications station on Alaska's Kodiak Island.

James Wells was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage. Wells was found guilty in April by a federal jury in the 2012 deaths of Coast Guardsmen Petty Officer 1st Class James Hopkins and retired Chief Petty Officer Richard Belisle.

"A tragedy occurred, and we all suffered for it," Wells said during sentencing. "And I know I'm innocent of this crime."

Both widows of the victims also spoke, saying they hoped Wells "rots in hell."

In the circumstantial case, it took a jury only one day to find Wells guilty of two counts each of first-degree murder, murder of an officer or employee of the United States, and possession of a firearm in a crime of violence.

Federal prosecutors earlier said they would not seek the death penalty if Wells was convicted.

Kodiak Island, about 250 miles south of Anchorage, is home to the largest Coast Guard Air Station in the Pacific. The double homicide took place 3 miles away at the base's communications station, where personnel monitor radio traffic from ships and planes.

The victims were found in the station's rigger shop, where antennas are built and repaired.

Hopkins, 41, was an electronics technician from Vergennes, Vermont. Belisle, 51, was a former chief petty officer who continued service to the Coast Guard as a civilian employee.

During the 19-day trial, prosecutors contended Wells, a Coast Guard civilian technician, resented the growing influence of Belisle and Hopkins in the shop where he was a nationally recognized antenna expert. Prosecutors said Wells meticulously planned an alibi, sneaked onto the communications station and gunned the men down on April 12, 2012.

According to the government's theory, after the shootings, Wells made it home and called Hopkins' work phone, leaving a message saying he would be late for work because of a flat tire.

Prosecutors said the flat tire was a ruse to give Wells a cover story for committing the murders.

According to authorities, Wells told the FBI he started driving to work, detected a soft tire, stopped at a hotel near the Kodiak airport entrance, checked the tire and returned home to change it.

Unbeknownst to Wells, a security camera at the nearby Coast Guard main gate recorded his truck heading for the communication station shortly before 7 a.m. and driving in the opposite direction toward his home 34 minutes later.

Wells' wife was out of town the day of the shooting, and her blue SUV was parked at the Kodiak airport not far from the communications station. Investigators believe a blue vehicle seen in blurry security footage belonged to Wells' wife and concluded he switched cars, waited for Hopkins to drive by, followed him to the communications station and shot him and Belisle.

Federal public defender Rich Curtner said Wells suffered from chronic diarrhea following gall bladder surgery and was delayed the morning of the murders because he spent 20 minutes in a bathroom of a commuter airline.

Wells made no mention of using an airport bathroom to the FBI.

Curtner and defense attorney Peter Offenbecher of Seattle contended authorities immediately focused on Wells and ignored other possible suspects. They said prosecutors had no eyewitnesses, no confession, no murder weapon and no physical evidence linking Wells to the homicides.

Wells served eight years in the Navy and 13 with the Coast Guard. Upon discharge in 1990, he was hired as a civilian employee.